Atlas of Battles

battle, major, interwar and Second World War

Falaise Pocket

Falaise Pocket was a battle fought on 12 August 1944 at Normandy, in what is now France; it lasted 9 days. It was part of Operation Overlord. The recorded result: Allied victory.

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Leaving a cloud of dust behind them, American armoured forces race through Ballon in pursuit of the retreating Germans as the Falaise Gap narrows with American and British forces closing on both sides
Leaving a cloud of dust behind them, American armoured forces race through Ballon in pursuit of the retreating Germans as the Falaise Gap narrows with American and British forces closing on both sides. Post-Work: User:W.wolny, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fought12 August 1944lasted 9 days
WhereNormandy, France48.893N, 0.192W
OutcomeAllied victory
BelligerentsUnited States; United Kingdom; Canada; Poland; FranceagainstNazi Germany
Part ofOperation Overlord1944

Where it sits in Operation Overlord

Battle for Caen, 1944Battle of Cherbourg, 1944Battle of Carentan, 1944Battle of Bréville, 1944Battle of Bloody Gulch, 1944Battle of La Haye-du-Puits, 1944Second Battle of the Odon, 1944Battle for Brest, 1944Falaise Pocket, 1944Liberation of Paris, 194419441944Falaise Pocket, 1944
10 placed engagements of Operation Overlord in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date12 August 1944
to 21 August 1944
PlaceNormandy, France
48.893N, 0.192W
KindBattle, interwar and Second World War
Commanders
Falaise PocketFalaise PocketBattle for Hill 140Battle of Val-ès-DunesBattle of ChamboisBattle of Verrières RidgeSecond Battle of the OdonBattle of ChamboisBattle of Verrières RidgeSecond Battle of the OdonLe HavreRennesRouenOrléansLe MansCherbourgDieppe100 km48.893N, 0.192W
The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

The ground today

Relief of the ground around the site of Falaise Pocket
Relief within about 10.0 km of the site, contours every 10 m. Copernicus DEM GLO-30, ESA.
Satellite view of the site of Falaise Pocket today
The same ground from Sentinel-2 on 2025-04-02. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2025.

The recorded site stands at about 150 m; within 10.0 km the ground runs from 63 to 249 m, 186 m of relief, hilly country and today it is 38% cropland, 33% grassland, 21% tree cover.

cropland: 38%grassland: 33%tree cover: 21%built-up: 8%cropland 38%grassland 33%tree cover 21%built-up 8%
west to east, 10.0 km84 to 200 mnorth to south, 10.0 km97 to 238 m
Elevation from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (ESA, Airbus); land cover from ESA WorldCover 2021 (CC BY 4.0), within about 5 km of the recorded site. Computed, not recorded.

Nearest engagements

In the same war

Elsewhere in 1944

Falaise Pocket is one of 2,997 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 1,383 in present-day France.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q602744, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Falaise pocket, revision 1384929911, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.